Duck & Honey Plum Sauce {+ why cauliflower pizzas are wrong}

Jump straight to the recipe → "Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath" - Michael Caine Two hours I spent this week experimenting with cauliflower pizza bases. Two hours of my life I shall never get back. I knew it was a bad idea. The first time I saw the recipe I archived it in the “That Sounds Revolting” file in my brain (the ...

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Thai Squid Salad

Thai Squid Salad {+ other Asian salad stories}

Jump straight to the recipe → "I'd say the most dangerous thing I've ever done is probably bungee jumping in Thailand" - Simon Cowell I bought an orchid at Bangkok airport once. And then got on the plane and proceeded to spend the next eleven hours in a panic that I was going to be arrested at Heathrow for bringing prohibited plant contraband into the country. I am pretty sure I didn’t ...

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Lemon Chard Aloo

"The unfortunate thing about working for yourself is that you have the worst boss in the world" - David Eddings When I started this blog I had this rather grand expectation that I would post two or three times a week. That's what they tell you, the internet people. It's what they say you need to do to get anybody to read it. Something about search engine optimisation. It's what you need to do so that you ...

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4 Ingredient Fig & Blueberry Maple Compote

Jump straight to the recipe → Tediously enough, I can't eat most fruits unless they are cooked or meticulously peeled. This is a relatively new development in my life and while I don't expect any sympathy (as medical conditions go it isn't exactly that terrible, is it?), it is still really bloody annoying. Especially so for somebody who is trying to hit their 7 a day target but who is also pathologically lazy. Peeling an ...

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Beetroot, Courgette & Feta Fritters

There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you" - Peter Vries I don't tend to write much here about what I feed my son. This is very much a deliberate thing. Nutrition is a minefield at the best of times but talking about feeding kids is, in common with 97% of all parenting related matters, just so intensely political that I vowed not to do ...

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leiths, scandinavian

What to do with Beetroot

Jump straight to the recipe ideas → "The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip" - Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume So here's a Thursday factoid for you. The biggest beetroot ever grown weighed 71kg. It was grown by a man in the Netherlands in 2005.  This beetroot therefore weighed just slightly more than Tom Cruise (so the internet tells me. I haven't ...

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Vignarola (Roman Spring Vegetable Stew)

"Let’s leave to the English the taste for eating boiled vegetables without any seasonings or at the most with a little butter; we southern types need our food to be a little more exciting" - Pellegrino Artusi (1891) I am suffering from possibly the most middle class complaint of all time. Farmers market envy. Yes, I actually said that out loud.  I keep stumbling upon blog posts with photos from US farmers ...

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What to do with Artichokes

Jump straight to the recipe ideas → "These things are just plain annoying. After all the trouble you go to, you get about as much actual food out of eating an artichoke as you would from licking 30 or 40 postage stamps. Have the shrimp cocktail instead" - Miss Piggy So that 7 a day series I mentioned. A new vegetable each week and all that. Not really happened, has it? I ...

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Donna Hay Pickles

Neon Pickles

“He looks as though he’s been weaned on a pickle” - Alice Roosevelt Longworth (on Calvin Coolidge)* Hello! It’s been a while. Sorry. I won’t pretend I’ve been terribly busy - I mean, some of you actually know me – but you know those weeks when you look up and suddenly it’s Friday and WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL WEEK? Well, it’s been a bit like that. And it hasn’t been greatly assisted by my son ...

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Cinco de Mayo – Tequila & Tacos

"Why did the Mexican push his wife off the cliff? Tequila!" Yes, I do write my own material and yes, I am here all week (try the veal) etc. Anyway, it's 5 May! And because 90% of you reading this are European, that will mean absolutely nothing whatsoever! It's just the day after Star Wars Day, right? But those of you in the US, or unbashed Americophiles like me, will know ...

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spelt cake diana henry gooseberry cake

Rhubarb, Almond & Spelt Cake {+ more thoughts on wholegrain baking)

Jump straight to the recipe → "A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges" - Benjamin Franklin I had been putting my faith in the idea that the law of averages must (surely) dictate that, if you bake with wholegrains enough, you will eventually create something that does not resemble a musty cricket ball. And finally my faith has been rewarded in the form of this ...

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Pippa Middleton’s Smoked Chicken Salad

"It is a bit startling to achieve global recognition (if that’s the right word) before the age of 30 on account of your sister, your brother-in-law and your bottom" - Pippa Middleton Sunshine! Quick! Stick a salad recipe up before they take it away again!  This one is almost topical too what with all the hoopla going on down under with K-Mid and HRH Baby Prince George.  I also said hello to Father Middleton ...

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